Warrior Monks: Politics and Power in Medieval Britain

298: Alexander of Wells watches William Wallace’s army across the field at Falkirk. Hours later, he is dead—cut down by the Scots.

1381: Hated collector of the Poll Tax, Robert Hales, is dragged from the Tower of London and executed, his head paraded through the streets before being placed on a spike atop London Bridge.

1490s: John Kendal sends coded letters to Perkin Warbeck’s supporters and hires an astrologer to murder Henry VII.

These men were not scheming lords—they were Knights Hospitaller. Commonly known as warrior monks, the Hospitallers were a religious and military order sworn to defend the Holy Land, supposedly above war and politics. Yet in Europe they became deeply entangled in local power, taking up positions as royal commanders, administrators, and politicians. They led armies, sat in Parliament, and joined court intrigues and civil wars.

While the Knights Templar have long captured the public imagination, the Hospitallers were just as influential—yet their story has remained largely untold, until now. From the English invasion of Ireland to Henry VIII’s Dissolution of the Monasteries and beyond, their history in Britain and Ireland is one of civil wars, violent feuds, duels, assassinations, and even witchcraft.

Drawing on the latest research, Warrior Monks reveals the gripping story of medieval Britain through the eyes of the Knights Hospitaller—a powerful order that made kings, toppled regimes, and shaped history.

RORY MACLELLAN is a historian specializing in the Knights Hospitaller and the crusades. He holds a PhD in Medieval History from the University of St Andrews, has published on medieval Britain and the Hospitallers in leading academic journals and has written for several history magazines and newspapers. Warrior Monks is his first book.